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Evoking a sense loss, it opens quietly. A guitar fills the background with a haunting wail. At two minutes in, it turns and becomes angry and accusatory. In tight formation, the band begins to hammer away. Soon you find yourself on a runaway train and there is no getting off this track. Best played at intense volume levels.
music for mapmakers : carnival
music for mapmakers, a Toronto based outfit, are back in the studio this summer working on their first full length disc. I'm really looking forward to this one. What are you waiting for?
Juliana Nash's self-titled 6-song EP that I blathered on about a few weeks ago is now available at CD Baby. You can also listen to snippets of four of the six songs: "Perfectly Beautiful", "Love is Heavy", "My Name" and "Built for Longing", on Juliana's page at CD Baby. It's hard for me to imagine someone into rock music not liking this CD and her music in general. It's just good music, ya know? And it's well worth the $10. If you do purchase the CD, consider adding "found out about it at listenup.sooz.com" on your order and add a review to CD Baby!
If celtic music is your bag(pipe), the Uprooted Tour may be coming to a town near your this summer. Featuring three fantastic young celtic bands--Seven Nations, Great Big Sea and the Young Dubliners, these guys play an infectious blend of celtic and singalong folk. Imagine your favorite college band with a heavy doser of bagpipes and penny whistles. I'm not that familiar with the Young Dubliners, but I pretty much promise you'll have a hard time listening to Seven Nations or Great Big Sea without tapping your foot and humming your head off.
Seven Nations: Great Big Sea: Young Dubliners
Seven Nations: "King of Oblivion"
Great Big Sea: "Consequence Free", "Stumbing In"
If you are a San Franciscan, or the next time you're out here, I highly recommend checking out the Extra Action Marching Band, a rediculously motley crew of trumpeters, drummers, flag twirlers and cheerleaders, most in poor taste and very states of undress. I was fortunate enough to be a party last night where they made a grand entrance by jumping on the furniture, lighting fireworks and molesting the guests.
If you live in the Boston/Cambridge, MA area you might want to check out Sparkola's CD Release Party tonight at The Abbey in Inman Square. Live Sex Act are on first, then The Rudds and then Sparkola. I'm not sure what time each band starts since there's no info on the web page or the upcoming shows phone number; but 10PM is probably a safe bet.
I need some new music suggestions for soozradio. What are a few of your new or not so new music favorites? Got any to share?
My favorite singer/songwriter, Rose Polenzani, is playing a bunch of shows on the East coast and a few in the midwest in June and July. I probably need to come up with a good way to describe her music and why I like it so much since I'm always telling people to listen to her music and see her live. Others have compared her to Edie Brickell, Leonard Cohen and PJ Harvey. For more information beyond this quick list of tour dates visit www.rosepolenzani.com.
Saturday, June 15, 2002
Motherfool's Coffeehouse, 8:00 PM
Madison, WI
Tuesday, June 18, 2002
Uncommon Ground, 8:00 PM
Chicago, IL
Wednesday, June 19, 2002
Rudyard Kipling, 7:30 PM
Louisville, KY
Friday, June 28, 2002
Jammin' Java, 8:00 PM
Vienna, VA
Saturday, June 29, 2002
Living Room, 9:00 PM
New York City, NY
Sunday, June 30, 2002
Happy Endings, Time TBA
Syracuse, NY
Tuesday, July 02, 2002
Fire & Water, 9:00 PM
Northampton, MA
(A five-week residency!)
Words could not express the joy in my heart when I found out that Juliana Nash not only had a show in Cambridge last week but she also recorded a 6-song EP. She even ended her show at The Lizard Lounge with Thomas and Greg, two of her old bandmates from Talking to Animals. Michael and I were trying to recall the last time we saw TTA on a stage together -- sometime in 1999, perhaps? Seeing the band (sans Mike Levesque on drums) together to sing "Mouth Tattoo" definately goes down as one of the most memorable musical moments of 2002. (Next to Michael finding a signed black/white Tragically Hip glossy photo in a book last week at the Harvard Bookstore!)
Juliana is working on making her self-titled EP available sometime soon for purchase online for all sensible music listeners. Until then, here's a special MP3 treat only available (as far as I know!) on Listen Up! This song will only be available for two weeks so grab it now and then check back for info on when the CD will be available for purchase. Juliana wrote this song for Ruby, her first child born (I think) sometime this year. When she introduced the song at her show at The Lizard Lounge, Juliana mentioned that there was no way she was going to write a sappy song so this rocking song came to life instead.
Download the MP3:
Juliana Nash : Perfectly Beautiful
(128kbps MP3 -- only available for download until June 20th)
If you're ever in New York City, you should visit Pete's Candy Store, her bar in Brooklyn. Now if I could just convince Juliana to return to Cambridge in January 2003 to perform a few songs at my Rock and Roll 30th Birthday Bash.